As the modern education spread in our region, Kashmir also had its own share of activism at both the levels: Public as well as Private. With a handful of schools where student were few, and the admissions were made in a ‘compulsive’ manner, it changed a lot as years went by. At the moment Kashmir is a place where there are hardly any kids who don’t go to schools. It is a heartening feature of our society that we give prime importance to the education of our children. No matter what the financial condition of the parents is, they leave nothing undone to educate their children. This is the reason we have an ever growing sector of private schools here in Kashmir. At the same time we have a huge number of government schools that are spread in the length and breadth of J&K. It wasn’t that long ago when government schools formed the backbone of the primary, middle and secondary level education.
But now the scenario is changed. Though our government schools are everywhere, the number of admissions in these schools is dwindling. Though the teachers in these schools are competent and qualified but there services are not getting utilised as the number of admissions are very less. The kids who are enrolled in the government schools come from a strata of our society that is poor, marginalised, and least interested in education. In this scenario the outcome of these government schools is minimal. The tragic part is that the resources, human as well as physical, invested in education are huge by any proportions. At a much lower investment our private schools are doing far better. Here the question arises; why can’t the directorate of school education come up with a comprehensive plan that ensures optimal utilisation of resources. Why is it that the top brass of the directorate is busy only with transfers and some cosmetic actions that ensures some optics in the public sphere. It needs deep thinking, and an out of box solution to make the government schools function in a productive way.